Last week, I came home from a trip only to discover that deer had descended on my pansies. A couple blooms survived the attack only because they were too small to be eaten. (Notice the perfectly chewed off stems in the photo above.) A day later, the two blooms opened and began to grow. Lorrine, my across-the-street neighbor told me that the deer won’t come near a house when dogs are present. “Great,” I said looking down at the damage. “The dogs were gone, too.”

She smiled and then went on to tell me how once she tried to capture a family of fox that had set up house in a ditch in the corner of her front yard. (After a year and a half of living here, I’m beginning to learn when some Call of The Wild tale is about to be told.) As I listened with my usual wide-eyed amazement, she explained how she had failed miserably in her attempt. And then with a chuckle said, “Instead of catching a fox, I caught the Jack Russell Terrier that lived across the street.”

I nearly fainted! I thought about Chipley and how if he ever got loose, he could ended up being “caged” in Lorrine’s ditch! And she didn’t just catch the Jack Russell once, she caught him twice but never a single fox!

I’m going to lock up my dogs and never let them out of my sight! (Which is what I normally do anyway.)

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